Siege of Nogales
The Siege of Nogales was a major battle in the post-Siege of Two Sun phase of the NCR Arizona Offensive, in which NCR and Allied forces had effectively divided Legion forces in Arizona into separate cities with little connection with the greater Legion Empire, and began a campaign of surrounding and capturing these locations one-by-one. The Siege of Nogales would see some of the heaviest fighting in the post-Two Sun period of the war, with Legion defenders stubbornly holding out in positions in the mountains surrounding the city. Background The pre-war cities of Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Mexico were located immediately across the US-Mexico border from each other, and after the breakdown of both the US and Mexican governments after the Great War of 2077, there was initial conflict between the US and Mexican cities, with gangs of raiders often stealing from people on the other side. Eventually, however, relations between the two sides of the former border improved and the two cities effectively became one, with residents of the former US and Mexican cities regularly trading with each other, forming a city where aspects of US and Mexican culture blended together, and many residents spoke both English and Spanish. In the post-war period, Nogales became a relatively prosperous for a post-apocalyptic city, and was major stop for caravans running along the highway known after the war as the 19-15, after the pre-war designation of US Interstate 19, which became Mexican Highway 15 upon crossing the border. When Caesar's Legion arrived in 2258, the city of Nogales, located in a mountain pass surrounded by mountains on all sides put up a fierce resistance, with several Legion attacks being cut down by machine gun nests, snipers, and the few artillery pieces the townspeople mounted on positions in the mountains overlooking the road, allowing them to fire down on them with a murderous crossfire. The inhabitants of Nogales held out for two years, until April of 2260, when Legion forces flanked around the Santa Rita Mountains forced their way through the more lightly defended pass near Patagonia, former Arizona, and took Patagonia Lake, one of the main sources of water. A few lakes later, a smaller force of 600 Legionaries crossed the mountains to the west and seized Pena Blanca Lake to the west of town. As there was no pass to allow easy transport of supplies, the Legion force stayed only long enough to sabotage the pre-war dam, rigging the earthen dam with explosives and destroying it, sending a flood down stream which caused severe damage and killed dozens of people. With their sources of water cut off, the inhabitants were weakened to the point that the Legion were able to force their way through the passes to the north and northeast of the city, placing it under their control. Some residents fled into the mountains and attempted to continue to resist, however, in time, many were captured and crucified along the road. By the time the NCR and Allied forces arrived in Nogales, the same mountain fortifications that had held back the Legion for two years were now manned by Legion troops, and were equipped with concealed gun positions manned by some of the best trained ballistarii in the Legion, ready to fire down any attempt to push through the I-19 corridor. Tubac and the Santa Rita Mountains The operation to take Nogales began on the early morning of January 15th, 2283, with air and artillery attacks on Legion position in the Santa Rita Mountains to the south of Nogales. Among the more notable targets were Legion artillery positions located near the pre-war Whipple Obeservatory on Mount Hopkins, as well as the summits of Antenna Hill and Elephant Head, two prominent peaks that overlooked the road into Nogales, which the Legion had placed light artillery and mortars. The first attack were conducted by a flight of six F80s, followed by twelve piston-engine planes, which hit the summit positions with bombs, rockets, and gunfire. The air attacks were followed by artillery barrages on Legion positions in the mountains. At 0730, a mixed Brotherhood-NCR flight of Vertibirds and helicopters advanced on the Legion positions on the peaks, supported by Vertibird gunships. Within 30 minutes, Elephant Head, Antenna Hill, Mt. Hopkins, and Mt. Wrightson were all in NCR hands, the artillery on the summits having been destroyed or captured. With the guns silenced, NCR mechanized and cavalry forces cut off the end of Madera Canyon, trapping the Legion troops in the valley, who quickly surrendered. With the guns on the heights disabled, NCR armored forces led the main push down I-19. The town of Amado was quickly cleared, however, NCR forces started taking fire from hidden Legion gun emplacements in the hills and low mountains to the east of the road, which fired as the NCR forces reached a range of within about 1000 meters, disabling four NCR tanks and causing a few dozen casualties. NCR forces responded by returning fire with their tank guns, bombarding the emplacements. After exchanging fire for about ten minutes, the Legion positions were sufficiently suppressed to allow NCR infantry and cavalry to advance up the hills. After about two hours punctuated by ambushes periods of heavy fighting, NCR forces drove the Legion out of the northernmost hills, at about 1000 hours. With the heights cleared of enemy positions, NCR armor was able to advance to the town of Tubac along I-19 in the valley, where they engaged Legion roadblocks, which included a few tanks and artillery guns hidden among the abandoned pre-war houses, demolishing many of the structure with their guns. Advancing was done block-by block, with armored vehicles using their guns to knock out any heavy defenses, before the infantry moved in to clear the structures. Tubac was cleared of Legion resistance by 1200 hours, with some Legion troops quickly surrendering, but others stubbornly holding out in their fortified structures. Fighting in the Western Mountains As their comrades attacked down I-19, a smaller force of NCR troops, including a company of tanks, as well as three infantry and one cavalry company, supported by a Brotherhood of Steel power armor platoon entered the town of Arivaca, Arizona with little resistance, securing the town by 1000 hours. As they advanced south into the lower mountains to the west of I-19, they began to encounter heavier resistance. The initial resistance was suppressed by fire from the tanks, allowing the infantry to advance, but as the troops advanced further into the Pajarito Mountains, the mobility of NCR armor was limited to only a few pre-war dirt roads. This slowed the NCR advance to the point that by 1200 hours, they had only made it as far as Chimney Peak, a few kilometers away. After securing Tubac at 1200 hours, other NCR forces advanced into mountains from the east, securing the ridge nearest the road by 1300 hours. The fighting in the Pajarito Mountains was characterized by a slow-moving search for Legion strong points, all the while fighting of ambushes by snipers, machine gun nests, and mortars. When stronger Legion positions were detected, they would be engaged by tanks or Vertibird or helicopter gunships if possible. If not, infantry were forced to engaged the fortifications with handheld rockets, before moving in to clear the remains. By 1400 hours, NCR and Allied troops had pushed a few kilometers to the ghost town of Ruby, abandoned in the 20th century. At 1500 hours, NCR and allied force began their advance on the summit of Atascosa Peak, the highest point in the Pajarito Mountains, and the sight of a Legion artillery firebase and lookout. While the summit had been hit by artillery and air strikes, disabling he heavy guns, multiple mortars and machine guns, as well as a couple pack howitzers remained in position. With several NCR tanks having made it down the dirt road into direct fire range of the peak to provide suppressing fire, NCR infantry and dismounted cavalry launched their attack on the peak. The NCR and allied forces launched a pincer maneuver, attacking the Legion positions by advancing up two different arroyos which provided partial cover, one to the north and one to the south. All told, the fighting to take the summit took over an hour, until 1521 hours, with particularly heavy fighting in the northern arroyo, in which the Legion launched a counter charge. While the counterattack was repelled thanks the to superior weapons of the NCR forces, There were reports of groups of Legion troops reaching in to close quarters and engaging in hand-to-hand combat. With the summit of Atascosa Peak controlled, the main defensive position west of the highway was cleared. By the end of the day, NCR forces in the mountains had pushed about as far as the old Mexican border, however, it was not possible to launch a major offensive through there due to the impassible terrain. The Patagonia Flank Attack and the I-19 Push While the Pajarito Mountains would not be completely cleared of Legion forces until January 18th, by the morning of January 16th, all of the major Legion artillery positions were cleared, allowing the NCR forces to continue their advance south down I-19. The advance, moved south from Tumacori starting on 0900 on January 16th, was slow, encountering resistance from Legion rocket and machine gun nests, as well as artillery and vehicles remained in Legion hands in hidden positions on the hills, as well as infantry hiding in the dense, low-lying woodlands of the valley floor. Among the infantry were suicide bombers armed with C-4 or mini-nukes, who would lay in hiding, sometimes utilizing spider holes mere meters from the road, until an NCR vehicle passed, before charging at the vehicle and detonating themselves. While the NCR tanks leading the advance tended to survive these attacks, they would often have their tracks or other systems disabled, and APCs and light vehicles were often destroyed entirely. These Legion tactics forced the NCR to push their way slowly down the highway, advancing sometimes as little as 100 meters per hour, using the tanks for close-in fire support for infantry advances. By the end of 16th, they had pushed to the outskirts of the pre-war suburb of Rio Rico. The town of Rio Rico was seized after two days of heavy fighting, leaving much of the city, like most surviving pre-war cities and towns that got caught up in postwar conflict, largely in ruins. Rio Rico was finally cleared on January 18th. On January 19th, The NCR 102nd Armored Regiment which had been massing in the Santa Rita Mountains along with NCR mechanized infantry and cavalry forces advanced east along a dirt road leading up and over the mountains, towards the Patagonia highway. Among the forward elements of the NCR forces was an XM58 Self-Propelled Laser Weapon, one of two the NCR had recovered from the Nevada Test Site the previous year. The weapon advanced behind the NCR tanks, taking up overwatch positions to fire on targets reported by the main force or small recon units of light vehicles or cavalry. With the support of the heavy laser weapon and the tanks, the NCR forces were able to easily push past the relatively light Legion defenses, with most of the Legion preoccupied defending against the push on the city from the south. By 1100 hours, NCR force has cleared the town of Patagonia of the relatively light Legion presence, many of the defenders fleeing into the Patagonia mountains to the south. Given the cold temperatures at the higher elevations in January, many of them would surrender within the next few weeks. By 1300 hours, NCR forces had cleared the area around Patagonia Lake, as well as the pre-war Nogales Airport, with this elevated position, they cleared the town of Beyerville in the Santa Cruz River Valley. Beyond this point, however, NCR forces were not able to advance further into the city of Nogales proper, lacking the numbers to fight in the dense urban areas in the city center. Instead, NCR engineers arrived and dug in, setting up defenses both facing away from the city in Patagonia, and towards in Beyerville. With these positions, the NCR troops awaited reinforcements. Urban Combat At 0700 hours on January 20th, NCR and Allied forces began advancing towards Nogales, both from the north on I-19 and to the east from Beyerville. The eastern attacking force entered the suburbs of Nogales quickly, facing only light Legion resistance, while the north force faced heavier resistance, though they gradually pushed the Legion forces back from their positions. By 0900 hours, the north force had cleared an area of abandoned pre-war stores and restaurants in northern Nogales. At 1145 hours, NCR and allied troops had pushed the Legion south of the major pre-war street of Mariposa Road and met up with the eastern attacking force. After several more hours of urban combat, Legion forces had retreated south of the former US-Mexican border by 1300 hours. As NCR and Allied forces attempted to push south of the pre-war border, they were met by Legion forces defending in the remains of the border fence, as well as a series of ridges on near the border. While the border fence was in poor repair and had been breached in many places in the period since the US and Mexico ceased to exist after the Great War, either by natural wear or by wastelanders creating routes across the border, the border still proved a formidable obstacle for the NCR forces. South of the border, in what was once the Mexican city of Nogales, pre-war structures were much more densely placed, and the Mexican city was also much larger than its counterpart immediately to the north, representing an area of pre-war structures running almost ten kilometers from north to south, most of them being densely packed, restricting the movement of vehicles. The Legion commander Catellus of Nogales had intentionally placed their 600 or so remaining men in line just south border, intending to use the terrain of the city to halt the NCR advance by providing ample locations for ambushes and using the dense pre-war buildings to restrict movement of armored vehicles. The Push South Starting about 1300 hours, NCR force had to contend with heavily defending Legion positions, which temporarily halted their advance. Catellus, however, underestimated the amount of aerial and artillery resources the NCR and allied forces had at their disposal. Twelve F80 fighters and 16 piston-engine aircraft (including the Boomers' B-29 Superfortress), as well as 12 Vertibird gunships, launched bombing runs and rocket strikes on the Legion positions, before NCR and allied artillery, including both guns and Standard Artillery Rocket batteries fired on the Legion positions. The XM58 SPLW, stations on the hills overlooking Nogales to the east, also discharged over 100 pulses at the Legion held territory to the southwest. At 1530 hours, NCR forces launched an assault at the Legion positions. While the Legion troops put up a fierce resistance in the rubble from the bombardment that made moving armor difficult, they were outnumbered almost ten to one, and ultimately the line broke in multiple places, splitting the Legion into multiple pockets of resistance, which were gradually forced deeper into the city. By the end of the 20th of January, NCR forces had pushed two kilometers south of the pre-war border, NCR engineers were beginning to clear corridor to allow armored vehicles to more easily traverse the wreckage. On the 21st of January, regiment of NCR armor and mechanized infantry advanced south from Beyerville along a arroyo feeding into the Santa Cruz River, pushing across the pre-war border and reaching a road leading west to Nogales, flanking the Legion positions. As the Legion became broken into smaller and smaller groups, more and more of the soldiers deserted, surrendering to the NCR or fleeing into the surrounding mountains. Most of those that fled to the mountains would later come down and surrender to NCR or allied troops in the coming months. The last Legion forces in the city would surrender on the 24th of January, 2283. At some point between the 20th and 24th, Catellus of Nogales, the Legion governor and commander, was killed, apparently when the structure he was holed up in was struck by an artillery or tank shell. The exact date of his death is unknown, his body only being dug out of the rubble in on the 27th of January. Aftermath Like with Phoenix and Tuscon before hit, the NCR siege of Nogales liberated the city, but left much of the surviving pre-war structures in ruins. Like in the other cities that suffered this fate, whole settlement within the remains of the city were uprooted, most notably Rio Rico, which was re-founded in the less-damaged parts of the pre-war suburb further from I-19. After the war, the main parts of Nogales and the surrounding area including the new town of Rio Rico, the lightly damage East Side, and the towns of Beyerville and Patagonia, which were taken intact by the NCR. On the former Mexican side, the main inhabited settlement on the former Mexican side within the pre-war remains of Nogales is Nogales del Sur (Spanish: South Nogales), located in the southern part of the former Mexican city of Nogales. Nogales, including both the former US and Mexican cities were incorporated into the Republic of Arizona upon its founding, making the former Mexican side one of a few places where the Arizona Republic entered into what was once Mexico. Category:Battles Category:Events